Me and my husband each had 8 year old boys when my sister abandoned her three kids and we took them in. That was 4 years ago and now I am the unexpected mother of FOUR teen/tweens. I have a five year old, two twelve year olds, and two thirteen year olds. This is not what I wanted my life to be. I took my sisters kids so that they didn't have to grow up in foster care, and because they had separated them all from each other. Our adoption was finalized last year and now I have 5 kids. The 4 older kids are making my life so miserable. I love them all so much, but it is so exhausting and grueling. 70% of all of the conversations I have with any of them ends up in an argument. Every time I ask them to do anything like help with housework or go with me to the store it devolves into them being complete jerks and ganging up on me to argue about how terrible it is or how they shouldn't have to. Literally every single day they are here I spend deflecting arguments and trying desperately to just get the most basic of household needs done with them. I feel like I am just bleeding out every single day and by the end of the day I am empty. It's like our fun and happiness is being held hostage by their garbage moods about everything. I cry almost every night after they have gone to bed because of how stressful the day was. I should express that they are good kids, they don't do drugs or get in fights. The two older adopted children went to a lot of transitional therapy and did great with that. I feel like it is just what I should expect from teenage years but with the 4 of them it is so exhausting. Sometimes I just want to give up. I don't know how to get through this and no matter how many times I talk to them about their behavior it doesn't end. I am desperate for a way to get them to stop with the arguing and complaining all of the time. I'm at my wits end. What am I supposed to do? I feel so incredibly tired and done with it all. ... View more